This was many, many years ago… SPANC was not around…
The Mairie told us they intended to do mains for the whole village in a couple of years… and advised us to wait for that… (very decent of them really). No idea how the situation could have been overcome if not. We are on solid rock ! (well, solid rock with an ancient tunnel)
Sorry, all, I was prevented from responding yesterday as apparently there is a limit on new members of 6/day and I exceeded that. I did not mean to make it look like I was ignoring your responses. As for the electrical estimate, when we were given that we were looking at a house in the Beziers area, in the Herault, and yes the house was quite large, and the electrical was in very bad shape and old. Hopefully, for a smaller house, in better shape, in the Charente-Maritime, it would be less.
I also have a general compromis question: Our draft compromis includes a section under the Penalty Clause that states that if one of the parties pulls out from the sale (after the compromis is signed, the 10 days have passed, and the deposit is on file with the notaire) that party not only liable for the loss of the deposit but also for the total agency fee. We had always been told that if you pull out you lose your deposit but not that you have to pay the agency’s fee (which is much more than the deposit). Is this standard?
If it’s in the CdV that you agreed and signed, then it’s binding, whether standard or not.
Trying to remember what was in ours, can’t remember seeing a clause like that. Would guess that it’s non- standard as it is an immobilier benefit, and the CdV is between buyer and seller
It’s certainly not typical, the immobiliers get their commission for selling a property, not for finding a buyer who pulls out.
We’re at the draft compromis stage, nothing final or signed yet, and we are summarizing the changes we want our notaire to make. So I think I need to ask the notaire to remove that section. We are finding that our notaire’s ability to correspond in/understand English is limited, although we were told she is fluent. So we paid for a 23 page certified translation of the compromis (my skills don’t extend to legal French) and I guess we should probably pay to have the sections we want added written up in French for the notaire to use. Any thoughts?
Whoever told you she is fluent… is obviously mistaken…
Why not find/change to a notaire who understands English sufficiently for your needs?
Exactly as Stella says, you can choose your notaire, you don’t have to use one “recommended” by the agent or vendor, and definitely get that clause removed. Do you know about the “tontine” clause?
Had I this process to do over again, my husband and I would have gone looking for a notaire in the area (17) who spoke English before we left France. We didn’t have time for that, so we are using an American friend’s notaire in Paris who was assigned to us as “English speaking”. It is not a great situation, but I’ll be honest and say I don’t know how we can change now, and if we did, how would I find a notaire who speaks English well from 6,000 miles and 9 time zones away. It would also slow the process down even more. Not helping is the fact that Parisian notaires apparently consider themselves several notches above “country” notaires, so getting her to communicate with the vendor’s notaire in 17 is not going well. We were told this process is excruciating, and it is living up to the hype.
I have heard of it, I don’t know what it is. I may be running up against my limit of 6 responses/daily as a new member, so if you don’t hear back from me that’ll be why!
Its a clause that says your children, and children of your partner have no rights over your home if one or other of you dies - they cannot force you to move or sell.
I Am probably gonna fall foul of this and get shot down in flames but I had the same misgivings…the same worries and the same doubts after coming to France or rather Brittany to view one property…one…and if anyone had said to me just a month prior that I was about to change my life path and go live in Brittany I’d have quite happily shot them down in flames and told them they were insane…no way will I ever leave England…Truth is…the most obscure once in a lifetime chain of events put me on a plane…I’ll not go into the details of the cock up that saw me totally stranded on arrival except to say that I will be forever grateful to a taxi driver who’s number I still carry to this day…It was a bleak cold rainy day…I met the elderly occupier who spoke no English…The taxi driver took me back to the agent where I tried to negotiate a reduction on the spot due to the fosse septique…Truth of my own situation is that I was trying to negotiate the impossible…The price of my house was probably equal to the price of a new fosse septique…I agreed to buy regardless of any future problems I might encounter…I don’t regret it for a moment…Yes I have a non conforming fosse septique…Yes I had a year to put it right but as it works perfectly even though I actually have no idea how it’s working then I’m not gonna spoil my life worrying about it…I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it…,
How long has it been? Have you exceeded the year?
Yep…moved here lock stock and barrel and Border Collies on Brexit day…my son’s birthday…drove for 18 hours from U.K. without incident and then crashed into a local moments after finalising all documents at the notaire and on my way to my new house and my new life in Brittany…!
It’s normal in France for the buyers and sellers to use the same Notaire, they work for a fixed fee and that fee is shared between the two parties. If you use separate Notaire they share the fee.
Do not sign the compromis unless you are sure that it is exactly as you want it to be.
I think one day of them has even used dowsers.
Very old houses often had the waste water just going down a pipe into the ground (probably a hole filled with rubble/gravel/earth). Let’s face it, before that it was “chuck it into the streets” wasn’t it… 
If your friends have lived in the houses for a reasonable length of time (some years) with no problems… the old-fashioned/ancient system works …but they/new owners will still need a new system put in.
As a matter of interest Mat nobody has been prosecuted for going over the 1year time limit
SPANC are only a advisery service and cannot enforce any Law, It is down to the local Marie to take action and so far none have decided to prosecute anyone.
If a Purchaser is having difficulties complying with the timescale to which he/she has signed when buying the property… liaison with the Mairie is best route… in the first instance.
Most Purchasers get things in place asap… others do their best, but it can take a while longer than foreseen.
Sadly, there have been instances where Purchasers have simply ignored the situation … and gone on using the old fosse or whatever… and such blatant disregard is not acceptable… and will be dealt with… (maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow… but … soon ) 
(the poop police are getting their act together)
Also if you need a permis de construire or changement d’usage at any stage, it is very likely that getting it will depend on having the installation fosse etc aux normes.
) (the poop police are getting their act together)
Who are the poop police Stella, never heard of them before.